


At Full Blast

by bethany81707



Category: Ratchet & Clank
Genre: Battle, Flash Fic, Gen, Guns, My First Work in This Fandom, Pop star, Sensory Overload
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:54:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24746422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bethany81707/pseuds/bethany81707
Summary: A boss fight with a good musical score enhances the experience, but try telling the same thing to the guy actually doing the fighting.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 14





	At Full Blast

“Aw, don’t you worry, Ratchet… the transformation doesn’t hurt. ...Much,” Courtney taunted. Ratchet could only look around, concerned he’d find the pop star behind him with a gun, before disappearing. He had nothing to fear below… but above, Courtney Gears had an entire arena ready.

“Besides, I think you’ll enjoy being a robot!” Courtney said, from atop a small stage. No obvious weapons, but there was absolutely no reason to question their absence. Just worry about where the attacks would come from.

“Let’s see if you can fight better than you can sing!” Ratchet called, readying a gun of his own. Courtney disappeared, reappearing in a cage dangling around the outside of the arena, and Ratchet could only chuckle. Preparing for her own imprisonment, really. As he fired, however, he noticed that the scatter of his gun broke against the bars of the cage, leaving Courtney without so much as a scorch mark to show for it.

“DEATH TO SQUISHIES!” Courtney screamed, and all of a sudden, Ratchet became aware that it wasn’t just weapons lying around… no less than six massive speakers surrounded the arena, and one massive one lay underneath the grating under their feet. And Courtney just set them all to start blaring her anthem.

“I see the future and what do I see? Robots going crazy across the galaxy!” Courtney’s voice called in Ratchet’s ears, causing him to lose his grip on his weapon as his hands came to his ears, and as he stumbled to catch it, he found Courtney’s backup dancers swarming the arena, twirling ferociously. Ratchet’s scoff ended as said twirling sent his weapon careening off the edge of the arena and a high heeled shoe straight into his jaw. He grunted, not looking forward to what he’d have to go through to get that replaced, or at least reimbursed, as he withdrew another. He withdrew some spare shells while he was at it, using them as makeshift earplugs, but the sheer intensity of Courtney’s sound system was too powerful to be contained on just that.

“Can’t stand organics, they’re soft and squishy…” Courtney’s voice needled. Ratchet let out a burst of fire, jumping repeatedly to gain some room to stand as more backup dancers than Ratchet knew Courtney had took up his immediate vicinity. This was not how he imagined being swarmed by cute girls. Probably closer to reality than the fantasy.

“The time is now, we robots must be free!” Courtney screamed. Ratchet saw the boomerang flying his way, rolling along his side to evade it, and taking comfort in the fact this projectile didn’t have a backswing. His relief was short lived, as Courtney simply appeared from another cage and fired another projectile. Ratchet increased his firepower, desperate to take back as much of this arena as he could from the still swarming backup dancers just so he could handle the projectiles and form a plan of actual attack.

“This goes out to all you robots across the galaxy!” Courtney called, as backup dancers appeared in other cages, firing their own versions of that wicked boomerang. Ratchet knew his target- the cages themselves. He aimed his turret upwards, firing blasts up at the scaffolding holding up the contraptions. Courtney teleported about, and Ratchet knew his effort was not in vain. There was little visible damage done- in hindsight, probably for the best- but the cages now dangled more precariously and Courtney would neither benefit from their shielding or be able to use them to mount attacks.

“Ow! You’ll pay for that, squishy little thing!” Courtney cried, preparing more energy blast type attacks. Ratchet grinned, seeing the upper hand. With less room for the backup dancers to evade Courtney’s own attacks, and indeed, a marked decrease in the number of them stepping onto the field, Ratchet not only had fewer attackers to dodge, but more space in which to do so. His own blasts, covering the arena with energy fire, streams of lava, small attack robots and good old explosive ballistics, found their mark, and it became clear he was dealing damage. Courtney disappeared, reappearing on top of one of her speakers.

The audio input on the stage suddenly, somehow, increased in intensity. That, or it had lulled since the initial wave, and was now being ramped back up. Either way, Ratchet found himself losing his grip on his gear once again, and even his grip on the floor. Courtney reappeared in front of him, and sure enough the powerful auditory waves didn’t seem to affect her.

“All of this wouldn’t have to happen if you just joined our robot army like your friends,” Courtney said. Or at least, Ratchet assumed that was the gist. His makeshift earplugs had dislodged, but after those blaring blasts, he was starting to have problems hearing anything anyway. As if becoming deaf was going to protect him from the nightmarish acoustics.

“Never… organics will always have a place alongside robotics. You and your Nefarious partner are doomed,” Ratchet growled. He grabbed his wrench, and threw, striking at her knee joint. Courtney laughed, and held out her leg for Ratchet to retrieve his weapon, inviting him to attempt his dying throw again. Ratchet had a better plan, to swing the wrench about inside her leg. Courtney realised his plan, and jumped back, leaving her leg behind.

“No! NO! My fans…” Courtney cried, firing more energy blasts. Ratchet readied his shield, retrieving a gun and firing. Clank sent his own signals, adding a few more blasts and leaving the pop star a scrambled wreck.

“Now that’s a disposable pop star… disposed of,” Clank cackled. Ratchet was of a different mind, in part wondering just how disposable she really was, but moreso concerned about the fact someone would try to repair her. They had done quite the number on her, of course, but Clank had survived worse.

“Incoming transmission,” Clank piped up, and Ratchet nodded, turning away from Courtney’s gears. He had bigger problems- like hearing the message.

**Author's Note:**

> I hadn't so much as heard of Courtney Gears until a few hours before I got the idea for this story and only have a cursory understanding of Ratchet and Clank in general, so this is an experiment in unfamiliar territory more than anything else.


End file.
